CURRENT ISSUE JUNE 19, 2006

She is the first Indian woman to win a Grand Prix event in badminton. And at 16, it is a rare distinction for Saina Nehwal who has arrived to script a new chapter in the country's badminton history.

As a member of the bronze medal winning Commonwealth Games team at Melbourne, she served notice of her mettle for better international acclaim. But it is at the Philippines Open in Manila that the lithe girl from Hyderabad showed how she is able to keep the shuttle in play for a long and has the uncanny ability to come up with the right shot in time to be a winner. While she beat the sixth seed Julia Xian Pei
Wong of Malaysia 21 – 15, 22 – 20 to win the championship it was the quarter final win over the top seed Xu Huwaien of Germany in the quarter finals that made Nehwal the favourite and proved that she is truly world class.

" Actually before playing Xu I knew she was a top player but did not imagine she was world No.4," recalls Nehwal of the match that gave her the breakthrough. She had never played Xu before but rallied to come from behind trailing the top seed 6 – 13 to level score before taking the game 21 – 17 and win the match. Predictably, she rates this as her best win. Until this triumph, Aparna Popat's semi final entry in the
Swedish Open of 1999 was the best performance by an Indian woman. Now, Nehwal is all set to go places. With tougher opposition coming her way in the more estigeous Indonesian, Singapore and Malaysian championships in the coming weeks she will gain is greater international competition exposure and experience. And by virtue of her Manila victory she will move up at least ten places from her current 86 th ranking. " She has the right attitude and works very hard," says the former national coach S.M.Arif.

" Saina is fast, has a good reach and does not wilt under pressure because she has always a sharp focus on the match," says former all England champion Pullela Gopichand who put her through the training regimen at his academy during the last two years. The irony is the turning point in her career came two years ago when an earlier all England champion Prakash Padukone confirmed her badminton talent when she was inducted into the Bharat Petroleum Corporation that takes care of her travel expenses and has also promised her a job. " Padukone hinted that Saina could excel on the badminton court rather than as a doctor which is what I wanted her to be as she is good in studies," recalls her father Harvir Singh, a crop protection scientist with the Directorate of Oilseeds of the ICAR.

With the London based Mittal Sports Foundation being her sponsor since December 2005 money may not be a constraint to travel around the world and in improving her play. However, for one who became the youngest Indian ever to win the Asian Satellite singles title in Delhi last year at 15 Nehwal has a long road ahead. But that is not an easy one. While she has gained in confidence, Nehwal has to train harder, work on her strokes, build greater endurance and also have more international competition exposure.

" She is the brightest prospect for Indian badminton. If she keeps up the momentum she could truly break into the world's top ten sooner than one expects," says the former national coach U.Vimal Kumar. Given her grit and the fact the game is in her genes – mother Usha Rani is a former state ranking player for Haryana – Nehwal may as well change women's badminton in the country.

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